Chapter 154: Unexpected Chelsea
In addition to the record-breaking that can be seen by the outside world, in the game, when Cheng Hai scored twice and broke the record with 61 goals, he also received an experience reward from the system.
When Cheng Hai won the European Golden Boot Award, he was rewarded with 3 million experience.
And this time, he broke the single-season all-time goal record in the five major leagues, and was rewarded with a full 30 million experience, so that his total experience rose to level 30 122,421,800/100 million, and was automatically upgraded to level 31 22,421,800/200 million.
Level 30 is upgraded to level 31, and the reward of skill points is also increased by a notch compared to level 21-30, and the skill point reward is increased to 50.
At the same time, in terms of the random new skills that are rewarded with leveling up, Cheng Hai was lucky and obtained a new breakthrough skill "Cruyff Turn" with an initial attribute of 12.
After spending 36 skill points to increase the "Cruyff Turn" to the full value of 20, Cheng Hai spent another 10 skill points to increase the 19-point "Pick the Ball" to the full value of 20, and only 4 of the 50 skill points were spent at once.
That is, there are no skills to add, and the steal of 18 will need at least 5 skill points to go up a little, otherwise Cheng Hai will even spend these 4 skill points.
It was precisely because of the new skills added after the record-breaking experience reward upgrade during the game that Cheng Hai was like a fish in water in the game, and used Cruyff to turn around and successfully break through the opponent's defense in the process of breaking through the two breakthroughs, and finally staged the second five-goal single game in the club game.
In addition to allowing Cheng Hai to break William Dean's record of 60 goals in the top five leagues, this five-goal in a single game is only two goals away from the 66 goals set by Hungarian star Ferenc Dejak in the 1945/1946 season.
66 goals, which is the highest goal scored in a single season including the first professional football league of any European country.
In other words, if the points coefficient and the number of goals scored are not calculated according to the difficulty of the league, the record of 66 goals set by Ferenc Dejak in the 1945/1946 season of the Hungarian First League is the highest European Golden Boot goal record in the history of modern European football.
Beyond this number, Cheng Hai is the person with the most goals in a single season in the history of Europe's top professional leagues, and the all-time top scorer in a single season in Europe.
As long as this record is broken, whether it is the five major leagues or the leagues of other small countries, Cheng Hai's goal count is the highest historical record in Europe.
And now, Cheng Hai has 64 goals, and the gap is only 2 goals.
For Cheng Hai, if he plays well, two balls will be solved in one game.
In addition to the European record, the world record for the most league goals scored in a single season is actually just one more goal than the European record, which was scored by Scotsman Alche Stark for Bethlehem Steel in the 1924/1925 American soccer league.
And Cheng Hai is only 3 goals away from this world record. Once surpassed, Cheng Hai will become the all-time all-time scorer in the world's professional football league.
The media and fans can only worship Cheng Hai's goal efficiency and various record-breaking.
It also gave the whole Dortmund squad a lot of confidence for the first leg of the next Champions League quarter-final at home to Chelsea.
At 20:45 on the evening of March 28, 2012, with the cheers of more than 80,000 fans in the stadium, with the referee's whistle, the first leg of the 2011/2012 Champions League quarter-final match between Dortmund and Chelsea officially began at Dortmund's home stadium Westfaren Stadium.
With the 6-1 thrashing of Cologne in their last game, Dortmund launched a ferocious attack from the first minute.
And, in terms of the pace of the game, they did the same as when they played AC Milan in the second leg of the 1/8 finals, with a full-court high press and quick attack, trying to drag down Chelsea's fitness and achieve the same result as in that game.
Speaking of which, Chelsea do have some similarities with AC Milan, with a bunch of veterans at the back, and coach Roberto Di Matteo is also Italian and has a deep knowledge of Italian chain defence.
In the first leg of the 1/8 final 1-3 defeat to Napoli, Villas-Boas was sacked, and Di Matteo, who was appointed in danger, relied on the Italian-style chain defense to eliminate the Serie A team Napoli and lead Chelsea to the quarterfinals.
So, from the average age of the backline to the tactics, Chelsea have similarities with AC Milan.
Coupled with the fact that Chelsea have just changed managers, everyone thinks the Blues are in turmoil, and Dortmund could break down the Blues backline and win as they did against AC Milan.
However, during the game, Cheng Hai and others attacked for more than ten minutes, only to find that Chelsea's defense was still impregnable, and there was no sign of collapse at all.
Whether it is Terry, Frank Lampard, Ferreira, Ashley Cole, who are over 30 years old, or Cech and Essien who are in their playing years, they are all high-spirited, hard-working, and tacitly cooperative, not at all like a turbulent division that has just experienced a change of manager.
They used Roberto Di Matteo's Italian chain defense to block Cheng Hai and his teammates' breakthroughs again and again, or pass and run to cooperate, so that Dortmund did not score a goal until the opening 20 minutes passed.
This surprised the Dortmund players, coaches, spectators in the stands, and journalists. In fact, what everyone doesn't know is that the root cause of Chelsea's turmoil is just the conflict between Villas-Boas and the players, who were sacked and the players themselves were deflated and no longer focused on the team's dressing room struggles.
Roberto Di Matteo is the team's assistant coach and has a much better relationship with the players than Villas-Boas.
His imminent appointment was supported by all the Blues players.
With the belief that they will win, they lost 1-3 in the first leg of the Champions League 1/8 finals, and achieved a big reversal of 4-1 in the second leg and successfully advanced to the quarterfinals.
The comeback not only continued Di Matteo's managerial life, but also brought the Blues closer together and morale.
Coupled with the example of AC Milan's 4-3 defeat of Dortmund in the first leg, Di Matteo told everyone that as long as everyone can keep up with Dortmund's fast-paced play, then their chain defense is likely to beat Cheng Hai and Dortmund, and they will not be slaughtered because they can't keep up with the rhythm like AC Milan did in the second leg.
On the one hand, the average age of Chelsea is a bit older, but not as old as AC Milan.
On the other hand, they have been prepared for a long time to avoid being dragged down by Borussia Dortmund like they did against AC Milan.
At the same time, in terms of morale, they are indeed fighting hard at the Westfaren Stadium and Dortmund with the fighting spirit of mourning and victory in the voice of the outside world.
Now everyone knows that Cheng Hai's physique is strong, and most people don't dare to collide with Cheng Hai too much, for fear that they will not knock Cheng Hai down but will be injured.
But Chelsea's players are not afraid.
In the 14th minute, Dortmund had an attack from the back, and the ball fell near Cheng Hai and Terry.
The two of them rushed towards the landing point at the same time, jumping and fighting for the top at the same time, and Terry didn't flinch at all.
Cheng Hai's speed and bounce ability are stronger than Terry's, so the ball was grabbed by Cheng Hai.
But Terry didn't give up, but he didn't get the ball in the process of desperately fighting for the top, but hit his forehead on Cheng Hai's skull.
Cheng Hai acted as if nothing happened, but Terry fainted on the spot, and a big bag was swollen on his forehead.
But after the team doctor's treatment and sobering up, Terry did not go to rest, but continued to stay on the field and continued to collide with Cheng Hai.
Terry is joined by Essien and Frank Lampard.
The whole Chelsea team played quite tough and united, and the defensive coordination was quite good, even if Cheng Hai tried to pass and assist when he couldn't break through, he couldn't succeed.
The thousands of Chelsea fans who travelled with the squad watched from the stands, cheering on the Blues in the hope of a miracle win over Borussia Dortmund.
But unfortunately, on Dortmund's side, Cheng Hai is not the Cheng Hai who was confused in the first half of San Siro, but Cheng Hai who has come to his senses and knows how to pass the ball.
If you can't break through, you can assist, and if you can't assist, you can pass and transfer.
Even if Cheng Hai doesn't directly create goals, his deterrent power is still very strong, and he can always attract the key defense of Essien, Lampard, Terry and others, so that other Dortmund players can occasionally get excellent attacking opportunities.
There is no such thing as a perfect defence, not even Italy, which won the World Cup in 2006, let alone a Premier League team that has only been training under Italian coach Roberto Di Matteo for a month.
Therefore, after seeing that he couldn't shoot, break through, or assist, Cheng Hai began to consciously retreat or switch positions on the two wings, attracting Chelsea's Essien, Lampard, Terry and other important defensive giants to move with him, leaving gaps and opportunities for other Dortmund players to attack.
Although their offensive ability is not as good as Cheng Hai's, they are not useless. Whether it is Gundogan, Shinji Kagawa, Mario Goetze, Lewandowski, or even Sebastian Kyle, Schmelzer, Hummels in the midfield, etc., they all have certain offensive ability.
Otherwise, relying on Cheng Hai alone, why did Dortmund win the Bundesliga and League Cup double last season, and continue to top the Bundesliga standings this season?
After changing his strategy, Cheng Hai began to take the ball more in the midfield and on the wing, and when he could break through, he began to pass the ball.
Although Essien, Lampard and others knew that Cheng Hai's purpose was to attract them to defend and make them out of position, they had no choice but to defend Cheng Hai.
Because in addition to direct shots, Cheng Hai also has a strong assist ability.
His crosses, long passes in the air, short passes, etc., are all quite good, and Essien and others can't let Cheng Hai assist easily.
In such a situation, Gundogan, Shinji Kagawa and others have gained a lot of offensive opportunities and gaps.
In the 32nd minute, after several failed positional attacks, Dortmund finally played a smooth front-court combination.
First, Cheng Hai received a pass from his teammates on the right side of the front field, shook off Lampard with a bicycle, and then faced Essien who rushed up to defend, Cheng Hai made a pretended breakthrough move, causing Essien to nervously lower his center of gravity to defend, and the back line behind Essien also moved to Cheng Hai's side, preventing Cheng Hai from cutting inside from the side after breaking through Essien.
However, when the Chelsea defence moved towards Cheng Hai's flank, a huge gap was exposed on the left.
It's not that no one pays attention to that side, but Cheng Hai attracts too much defensive attention, and Lewandowski and Shinji Kagawa attract firepower in the middle, and Chelsea's defenders can't make up for it even if they know that the left side is missing.
Gotze and Ilkay Gundogan moved up front from the left, but Chelsea had only one full-back Pacos Ferreira defending them.
Ferreira can only choose Gundogan, who is closer to him, to defend, and can only let Mario Gotze on the flank, just hope that Cheng Hai can't see the gap here, or can't pass the ball when he sees it.
It's a pity that Cheng Hai not only saw Gotze's running, but his passing skills were enough for him to accurately send the ball to Gotze's feet.
The full-value aerial long pass technique, coupled with the muscular strength brought by the full-value physique and shooting power, allowed Cheng Hai to shake Essien with a Matthews feint and dodge a gap in his feet, and immediately transferred a long pass of more than 40 meters to transfer the ball from the right side to the left Gotze.
Like a precision-guided missile, the ball flew over 40 meters of the sky and to the left side of the front.
Gotze unloaded the ball unguarded and then dribbled towards the baseline.
However, after Cheng Hai passed the ball and the ball flew towards Gotze, Ferreira also gave up his defense against Gundogan, chased after Gotze, and jammed Gotze's inner route.
But Gotze didn't want to cut inside, and he kicked the ball back to the unguarded Gundogan who was on the edge of the penalty area line and played Ferreira on the outside.
Ferreira had no choice but to give up the defense against Gotze again and turn and pounce on Gundogan.
However, where is the time?
After getting the ball, Gundogan took two steps horizontally and burst into the penalty area, attracting defenders who returned to the box to block Gundogan's route into the box or shooting.
As a result, Gundogan just entered the penalty area, and suddenly twisted his ankle, and an inverted triangle pass sent the ball out of the penalty area and to the top of the arc of the penalty area.
Chelsea's defence was finally torn open by Cheng Hai, Gotze, Gundogan, Lewandowski, Shinji Kagawa and Kehl, and Gundogan's final fake pass created a vacuum at the top of the arc outside the box.
Centre-back Hummels crept in and fired a shot unmarked towards the Chelsea goal.
Hummels' undisturbed shot was so powerful that it flew like a cannonball into the top right corner of the goal.
In addition to the defenders, Chelsea's goalkeeper Petr Cech also performed very well in this game, like a goalkeeper.
In the early days, it wasn't like Borussia Dortmund didn't have no shots on goal, nor did they shoot without a threat in the woodwork.
But a header from Cheng Hai and a free-kick from Gundogan were all denied by Cech.
This time, Hummels' shot was also the first time Cech reacted to the save.
Eyes widened on both sides of the pitch and on the television, with Chelsea fans hoping for Cech to save the ball as usual, while Borussia Dortmund fans hoped Hummels' shot got past Cech's goal.
As one of the world's top goalkeepers, Cech has reacted unhappily.
He did manage to touch the ball.
However, Hummels' shot was too good, the angle was not to mention, and the power was also very high.
Cech touched the ball, but only poked the tip of his finger, but did not completely change the direction of the ball's flight.
The ball only changed its line slightly outward, but did not fly out of the post, but continued to fly firmly towards the goal frame, and finally hit the inside of the post, and bounced into the net with a "bang".
In the 32nd minute, Dortmund finally tore apart Chelsea's defence through a long pass from Cheng Hai, and Gundogan assisted Hummels to score the first goal for the Hornets, giving Dortmund a 1-0 lead.
With a "boom", earth-shattering applause and screams suddenly sounded in the stands, and the Dortmund fans, who had long been restless by the delay in opening the situation, finally found an outlet.
On the field, Hummels, who rarely scored a goal, was also quite excited, rushed directly to the south stand, threw himself into the die-hard fan base of the south stand, and was warmly touched by the fans to pat their shoulders in celebration.
It took a while for Hummels to be let go by the fans and return to the stadium to celebrate with Cheng Hai and others.
The goal boosted the morale of Borussia Dortmund's players.
Chelsea's defensive intensity did surprise everyone's pre-match expectations, but the difference in this game was that Cheng Hai did not fall into the trap of playing alone.
So, despite some unexpectedly difficult play, they managed to score in the 32nd minute and take a temporary lead.
After the game restarted, Dortmund continued to attack with the momentum of the goal they had just scored.
However, Chelsea did not appear to be affected by the goals conceded. Perhaps, conceding a goal was originally expected by them.
Moreover, although veterans such as Terry and Lampard are older and have some physical deficiencies, they are relatively much more experienced and resistant to pressure than when they were younger.
Although they conceded a goal, they did not rush out to try to equalise.
The knockout rounds of the Champions League are played over two legs, and a small defeat on the road is not a big problem at all.
Therefore, Essien, Lampard, Terry and others continued to hold the defense firmly, actively scrambling and covering each other, striving to prevent Dortmund from scoring again.